In this weeks weekly waffle I feel that have to start off this update with an apology for being AWOL for the last 10 months. There is no drama behind my absence it was just something that crept up on me. A few changes in my home life, all for the better, resulted in a reduction in hobby time, this along with the fact that we have been in some form of lock down for the last few years meant no meeting up for hobby time. With no targets to get things painted my mojo just disappeared and I missed a few posts. But the real issue is that once I’d missed a couple of weeks it became easy to miss a few more and before I knew it I had missed a couple of months. That was when things got really weird though because once I’d missed those few months it became really hard to think about posting anything new. It felt like I’d abandoned everyone and you can’t just go missing and then come back as if nothing had happened. Granted I’d not been doing a lot of hobby so weekly updates may have been a struggle but I did have content I just couldn’t seem to bring myself to update the site. The when I did decide to get things moving again I had some real issue with the site to resolve.
There isn’t anything special about the site, no real interaction with you guys, I don’t sell anything an I certainly don’t capture or store any sort of data. So I’ve never really thought about securing beyond what is offered by my hosting provider and WordPress which is what drives the site. But more and more browsers as not looking for all sites to have an SSL certificate so I’ve been trying to work how to so this and it has taken me an age to so something that in the end turned out to be quite simple. I’ll not embarrass myself any more but the long and short of it now is that the SSL certificate has been installed the site has its little padlock and navigation to the site is much easier. Job done, for now.
So I’ve explained where I’ve been but I also want to set the scene for what to expect going forward. I’m going to try to get back to weekly updates but at the same time I’m not going to beat myself up if I miss the odd one. But only the odd one. I still have more commitments at home than I did when I started the site so don’t have same amount of hobby time but I have found over the last month or so I’m starting to get my mojo back and I’m making more time for hobby. So I should be doing enough to have weekly content for you. It also ties in well with Adepticon coming up at the end of the month and as long my Antigen test is clear and they let me board a flight to the USA then I will be attending this year. I missed out in 2020, along with everyone else so it will be good to get back there this year. I plan on doing some dedicated updates in the run up to and during the event so that should be a months’ worth of content covered. Also if there is anything you would like me to try and track down whilst I’m there if you let me know in the comments I will see what I can do for you.
Now let’s get down to the good stuff, what I have I actually been doing for the last 10 months. Well the honest answer is not a lot but I do have some content for you today. I’ve been dabbling away at some more Orks but I’m going to save them for a future update because that isn’t what I’ve been working on over the last couple of weeks. Oh no, over the last couple of weeks I’ve gone in a completely different direction and I’ve been working on some Eldar. More specifically some Iyanden Craftworld Eldar. Before anyone points out that they are now Aeldari not Eldar, I know, but these have been in the making for so long to me they are and will always be Eldar. I have been wanting to paint up some Iyandan for the last twenty years, since I saw an article in White Dwarf about how they were nearly wiped out by Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken. I’ve just never had the confidence to try and paint anything in Yellow until now when I just said to myself that they don’t need to be perfect. Just have a go and as long as you enjoy yourself then that’s all that matters. Have a go at one squad and if they turn out ok then I can try something else. It’s not like I’m setting out to paint a new 40k army, with a bit of look I will paint up a couple of squads, and then see where things go from there.
With that in mind if you are going to paint Iyanden then you really have to start with some Wraiths and in this case I’ve gone classic with Wrathguard with D-cannons, although the models are not the old school metal ones. The build and clean up was easy and when it came to basing I just kept things nice and simple. I felt like I was on a bit of roll and didn’t want to get distracted by trying to find the perfect scenic base. Everything was then primed with the airbrush in light sand primer for no other reason than it was that or black. As I was planning to use contrast paints so black wasn’t an option. I couldn’t not give a paint called Iyandan Yellow a go when paining Iyandan models. Overall, I was really impressed with how it turned out, I could have cleaned up some of the pooled paint sooner and got a smoother effect but that’s a lesson learned for next time. I use some (NEED PAIN NAME) to add some contrast going over all the lines and gaps that needed shading. Then did some edge highlighting before deciding that was enough. There was more that I could have done but I felt myself on the precipice of a slippery slope where you just want to do that little bit more and never get anything finished.
So yellow finished I used the airbrush to get the gradient I wanted for the heads which I think worked well. I’m really happy with how these look and once they were given a lick of gloss varnish the really stand out. I may have got carried away by painting up all of the gems, but I’ve done it now and I do like how they turned out. More work for the next squad but all in all worth it.
I have another box of Wrath and my plan is paint these up as WrathBlades, I may even get the magnets out so that I can swap them between swords and axes. With a fair wind I will have something to share with you on there progress next week. I’ve also picked up a Fareseer and a Spiritseer to go along with them although I have no idea how they would actually work together. For now, they don’t really serve any gaming purpose, it’s just I remember way back when I first wanted to do this you needed a psycher attached to each squad and I like the look of these models. If they ever progress to the point where I think about turning them into an army, I will have to pick up the rules but that’s for another day.
That’s it for this return edition but I will be working hard to make sure you have updates for the next couple of weeks. Then it will be Adepticon and I’m really not sure what will happen there. I will either be radio silent for a couple of weeks or I will be overwhelming you with regular updates. A lot will depend on the internet access and as we aren’t actually staying at the venue that could be a bit sketchy but I will take lots of pictures to share at some point in the not too distant future. So, until next week I hope you keep yourselves safe, enjoy your hobby time and I really hope you can find your back here for the next update.
